Archive for September 2010
Have you seen Eye Spy Pillows? They are these little pillows that have a clear window in them that allows you to see the stuffing. Inside, the pillow has all these tiny objects floating around inside the stuffing. They’re really great for younger kids who are still considered a choking risk because they can see the little pieces, but they can’t put them in their mouth.
Well, we do a lot of activities around here, so I didn’t want a special pillow for just one segment. Also, I’m cheap (you guys should know this by now), so I decided to make my own.
For this project you will need a zip lock bag, some small plastic items, duct tape, and bottle of clear body wash. For my plastic items I chose bugs because that’s what we were studying at the time. I found the clear body wash at Walmart. 
So you fill your zip lock bag with the plastic items. Note: I chose slightly larger plastic items because my son has some vision issues. If your child doesn’t have vision issues, I’d encourage you to do many more small items. 
Then you add a LOT of clear body wash. 
Next, seal the zip lock.
Then, place the duct tape over the zip lock seal for extra protection (that sounds like a deodorant commercial).
Allow your child to explore bag and find all the different plastic items inside. 
My son has some sensory sensitivity, so he found the bag especially disgusting. His mom is mean and made him play with it anyway.
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Katy is a mom of one who loves art, mystery novels, and anything involving peanut butter–she blogs about raising her little miracle at Bird on the Street.
Paper towel and toilet paper rolls are staples in most houses and are among my favorite craft supply! Here are some of our favorite crafts we’ve made with these useful recyclable!
There is no way I would have ever expected this game to be half as popular as it is with my son. He has always loved garbage and recycling, but he took what I thought would be a fun activity and made it something he uses with this other toys. Calling it his recycling depot he has plopped it down on our family room floor all weekend next to the lego fire station and ferry dock. Oh and he continues to sort and re sort the items too! He’s using his imagination, pre math skills and problem solving too!
- Gather your materials. You will need 2-3 containers, some card stock, magazines , scissors, and double stick tape.
- Start by cutting out different recyclable and non recyclable items. This is where they need to really stop and think . If you are doing this with a younger or easily frustrated kiddo do this step yourself and have the game ready for them to figure out. My son was reading when I did this step , it would have been too much for him to make and play the game.
- Tape them onto the card stock. I am using some of the 250 plus business cards that read notimeforflashcards,com <— did you catch the comma? I digress.
- Make simple recycle and garbage signs on some card stock and place in the containers.
- Ok time to play.
- Something I loved about this was how hard he thought about each picture. With the kleenex he said ” Well we throw away the tissue with boogers but recycle the box…” then thought for a while before deciding. After this super simple activity he has been asking ” Is this recyclable Mama? “About everything in our house!
Books
The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling 
Little Pirate: Why Do We Recycle? 
Trash And Recycling 
This craft came about because my son wanted to make a puppet to have a puppet show, and I wanted to do a panda bear craft because we’d never done one and I get requests quite often. I love using short cuts like cupcake liners if I have them on hand but you can just use white paper too. Puppets make great crafts because their usefulness extends past their creation and spark my favorite type of play – pretend play!
- Gather your materials. You will need a paper bag, some white cupcake liners or paper, black paper, black marker , googly eyes, glue and scissors.
- Start by having your child color the paper bag, a little, a lot it won’t make a difference to the end result. I have been trying to fit more pen/pencil/marker time for my son because we are working on his tripod grip and I am not a fan of sitting down and forcing a skill at this age. However if I can use a fraction of art time to practice it’s a bonus!
- While they color cut out a nose( which I forgot and had to do after I took this picture), 2 ears and 2 eye patches for the panda using the black paper.
- Next glue on a cupcake liner on the main part of the bag for the panda’s belly.
- Glue the 2nd liner on the folded bottom ( now the top) for the face.
- Time for more glue – for the eyes.
- Add the eyes. You can see crafts are so useful for things like fine motor skills not just killing time with your kids!
- Add the ears and nose too!
- Let dry and play.
Books
Dinner at the Panda Palace 
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?
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If you are like me your time is not as plentiful as it once was and finding cool things online isn’t always easy. Link up your best post and make it easier on other readers to find something great to read on a quiet Sunday afternoon ! It doesn’t have to be about kids crafts, just has to be the one post you are most proud of. Please remember to link to the meme with the permalink of the post not your main blog address. Have fun reading , I know I will!
